Straight No Chaser - A Jazz Show

Podcast 471: A Conversation with Thana Alexa

Straight No Chaser is the place for jazz lovers (and those who will soon be jazz lovers) to enjoy podcasts with their favorite music and artists. Winner of the 2017 JazzTimes Readers' Poll for Best Podcast, your host Jeffrey Siegel will take you inside the world of jazz, from the new releases to the best festiva;s to remembrances of jazz legends.

"Thana Alexa is a great
new talent...has a beautiful voice and is a great composer and
bandleader...She's a musician first and a vocalist
second."-Antonio
Sanchez

High
praise from a great musician and Ode to Heroes delivers the
goods.

The album mainly features the engaging original compositions of
singer-songwriter Thana Alexa, along with vibrant takes on jazz
standards like Wayne Shorter's "Footprints," Charles Mingus'
"Goodbye Pork Pie Hat," and Paul Desmond's "Take 5." Most
importantly, it spotlights Ms. Alexa's ability to engage in
rewarding and illuminating conversation with some of the music's
most renowned and forward-thinking players. Her band includes
veteran jazz stars like Sergio Salvatore on piano and Sanchez on
drums and the likes of Donny McCaslin (saxophone) and Scott Colley
(bass) sit in on other tracks.

Though she was born in New York City, Thana was raised in Croatia,
so her path was never going to be the expected one. She first
encountered jazz at an outdoor café in Dubrovnik. The owner was a
bassist who encouraged her to join his band onstage when he spotted
her mouthing the lyrics in the audience. "He yelled to me from the
stage in broken English and my mom pushed me up there," she
recalls. "I must have looked like a tree just standing there; it
was my first time ever singing in front of people."

The experience ignited a passion for jazz and soon Ms. Alexa was
taking voice lessons at the Rock Academy of Zagreb. A few years
later, vibraphonist and club owner Bosko Petrovic took the young
singer under his wing, producing a demo and urging her to discover
her own voice. She returned to the States at the age of 18 to
attend Northeastern University, majoring in psychology because she
still saw jazz as a hobby. "I had the darkest year of my life," she
says. "It was only during a jazz course I had once a week that
something would light up inside of me when I had my five minutes to
sing. The message was clear that a life change had to be made, so I
moved to New York City and enrolled at the New School where I
received a B.F.A in jazz performance and also finished my B.A. in
psychology."

Since then, she has
collaborated with a number of adventurous musicians, most notably
guitarist Gene Ess, a veteran of bands led by Rashied Ali and Dr.
Eddie Henderson, while holding down a residency at New York’s 55
Bar, a jazz vocalist’s Mecca. She
won the 2011 Jazzon Alpe-Andria International Competition for
Ode To
Heroes while her song "Siena" was nominated for a Best
Jazz Composition award by PORIN, the Croatian Music Academy, an
honor equivalent to the Grammy Awards in America.

Podcast 471 features my conversation with Ms. Alexa with musical
selections from Ode
to Heroes, including the title track, “Trace Back Your
Footprints” and “Siena”, as well as tracks from Sanchez’s
New Life and
Ess’Fractal
Attraction.

Thana
Alexa will appear
March 23
at SubCulture in New
York, with special guests Antonio Sanchez and Donny
McCaslin.

About the Podcast

A blog with interviews, reviews, features and podcasts on jazz of the past, present and future. Four time winner of the JazzTimes Readers' Poll for Best Podcast.